Tokyo Marathon 2020 – Press Conference Highlights
[Article by Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite]
A bluebird day, at least that’s what I can make out from what little sky I can see directly above, with the horizons on all sides obscured by massive blocks of concrete. The most populous metropolitan area in the world, Tokyo is a shock to the system.
A quick trip on one of the city’s trains takes us to Shinjuku station. Tokyo’s transport system is a spectacle in and of itself, and Shinjuku is the crown jewel. 3.6 million passengers passing through its tunnels every day makes it the busiest train station in the world. Superlatives are a must when talking about Tokyo.
The Keio Plaza Hotel has an opulent lobby, signs directing us towards the Tokyo Marathon Press Conference on the fifth floor. Our friend Chikara has sorted us with passes to observe the proceedings. We chat with him for a while outside the hall, and then dramatic music starts inside – it’s time to take our seats.
The hall is filled with a couple hundred bodies, most faces obscured behind the white masks that have now sold out in so many of the local stores. Fears over the spread of Coronavirus have really hit the event hard, with the mass participation component being completely cancelled – no refunds.
A thick American accent narrates the videos produced for the event, it sounds more like announcing some WWE wrestling tournament than anything you would expect for a marathon. Tadaaki Hayano takes to the stage, accompanied by applause. A small man, longish hair slightly uncharacteristic of Japanese men his age, an orderly smattering of salt and pepper adorns his chin and upper lip, he wears a bright yellow “Tokyo Marathon 2020” track suit. The race director appears cheerful, given the circumstances.
He immediately addresses the elephant in the room, offering his condolences for the limitations the current outbreak has placed on the event. Cancelling such a major event – only months prior to the Olympics – is not a decision that was taken lightly. Not a good look for tourism in Japan and also heartbreaking for the tens of thousands of athletes that had been anticipating the event for many months.
Now free to move onto a more positive topic, he thanked those in the room and then spoke of his excitement for the imminent race. He was ecstatic to have assembled “a suite of top, top athletes,” and was looking forward to “watching a wonderful race unfold on Sunday.”
With that they moved onto interviewing some of the athletes. Women first. Ruti Aga (ETH), Birhane Dibaba (ETH), Valary Aiyabei (KEN), Lonah Chemtai Saltpeter (ISR). When asked about their form only Dibaba seemed very confident – she believed her preparation was solid and she was aiming for the win. Dibaba is the only woman to have won this race more than once (2015 & 2018), and she says “it is one of my favourite courses.” Aga also said she believed she could win however injury had hampered her preparation in the last few weeks. She said that she was hoping for more favourable conditions than last year. It is forecast to be a pleasant day which is a nice change from the rainy conditions in which the event was run in 2019. Hayano said that the pacers would be setting off at around 3:18min/km which would bring the runners to the tape significantly under the current course record of 2:19:47.
The men were summoned next. First the premier runners of the international contingent – Birhanu Legese, Getaneh Molla and Sisay Lemma. All Ethiopian. Legese’s personal best of 2:02:48, which he set at Berlin last year after losing his compatriot Bekele in the final few kilometers, puts him at third fastest in history, and the other two are the ninth and tenth fastest ever respectively.
Legese was asked how his win at Tokyo (2:04:48) last year affected him and he said that it gave him confidence in training leading into Berlin. He said he is now feeling even stronger than last year, and with the good conditions predicted he is confident he will run well. Molla said that injury had hampered his preparation and that relatively he was feeling stronger to his performance in Dubai, where he set a record marathon debut time of 2:03:34. However, he had recovered, had some treatment and still felt well prepared.
Hayano said that pacers would be going out at 2:55-2:56/km. Athletes are looking break 2:03 and “that’s what I have in mind,” he said. A fun activity that was included in the proceedings was asking all of the featured athletes to write their own predicted times on white boards, and then show the crowd. The three Ethiopians flipped their boards and it was Lemma that produced the fastest time – 2:02:00 – along with a big confident smile. “I’m aiming to rewrite the course record and then return to Tokyo [for the Olympics].”
Three Japanese athletes joined the men already assembled on the stage, and what followed was unarguably the most interesting part of the whole event.
The selection of process for Japanese athletes wishing to run the marathon in the Tokyo Olympics took place in the middle of last year. The MGC – Marathon Grand Championship. The first two athletes to finish, Shogo Nakamura and Yuma Hattori, attained qualification for the event. However, the third placed runner, Suguru Osako, received only a provisional place on the team. The third place on the team can also be claimed by beating the national record of 2:05:50 (held by Osako) at Tokyo Marathon – the final showdown of the MGC.
Suguru Osako, Yuta Shitara and Hiroto Inoue took to the stage. Osako looked determined. When asked about the field he said he was aiming to go out hard – sticking to the pace set by the men to his right… the three Ethiopians who would be aiming for sub-2:03. Shitara, who looked a bit nervous, said he wanted to run as he usually does. Aiming to stick with the foreign athletes. Shitara had gone out at a blistering pace in the MGC in September, having a lead greater than two minutes at the halfway mark. He didn’t manage to maintain the pace, or the gap he had created, and he finished 14th, almost 5 minutes behind Nakamura. It appears that despite this he isn’t afraid to melt his wings by flying too close to the sun yet again.
Next the three Japanese athletes were each handed three placards and asked to raise them in response to the questions to follow. Circle, yes. Cross, no. Triangle, unsure. The first question, are you confident with your preparation leading up to the race? Shitara threw up a triangle. The others confidently raised their circles.
Suguru was questioned first. He had just come back one week prior to the race after a six-week stint at altitude in Kenya. He said his training there was “nothing special, nothing different.” The altitude had served him well and he said he would be confident standing on the start line. Suguru has the most to lose in this encounter. His place on the team is only provisional and if one of his counterparts manages to beat him and take his national record, they will also be robbing him of his Olympic aspirations.
Next, Shitara. He said his training had gone smoothly following the New Year Ekiden, however his confidence has taken a knock due to being defeated by university students in some recent races. Nevertheless he still claims he’s feeling strong and can run better than two years ago, a race in which he ran 2:06:11, breaking the long-standing national record and winning a bonus of 100 million yen (then US$937,000), offered by the race organizers to any Japanese runner who could set a new record.
The final question asked of the panel was whether they could set a new national record and cement a place in the Japanese Olympic team. Both Osako and Hattori raised their circles, and Shitara yet again proffered his triangle – “I don’t know.” Osako said that based on recent performances and how he was feeling, he was in PB shape – “all I think about is running faster than everyone else.” Shitara said he wasn’t one to plan a time in advance, and he was just focussing on running well. When probed as to whether or not he had a fixed plan for the race he said he didn’t. “There are two full days before the race,” he said, he will decide on a plan once he sees how he feels at the warm-up.
Finally, the whiteboards with the athletes’ predicted times. They took their time, and definitely stole glances at each other’s boards before volunteering them to the audience. Shitara posted a modest 1 second PB of 2:06:11. Inoue – 2:04:30. Osako – 2:??:??. When Osako was questioned, he said the race was a fight against himself. His time will depend on weather and conditions, but he plans to make an effort to be in the lead pack. “That’s why I left it blank.” His face was determined, focussed, almost confrontational. He didn’t want to place limits on what he could achieve come Sunday.
The race set to unfold on the streets of the world’s biggest city is going to be an exciting one. The threat of an epidemic slightly overshadows the event, however it seems that the battles that we are going to witness may cast enough light to throw off the shadow. Prospective spectators have been asked to refrain from lining the avenues of Tokyo to cheer the athletes, and many public events in the country have been called off due to concerns over the spread of the virus, however we do recommend tuning in this weekend to see the race play out.
